Baby Parks is HERE!!!

While we have been laying low this January, my sister has been toughing it out.

I got a call this morning from Chad, Tiff had the baby early this morning (around 8 ish) after a whirlwind labor process.  They barely made it to the hospital it time, her water broke at home.

Crazy how quickly us Dudley gals have those babies.  

Anyway, we headed to the hospital tonight after church, the kids were so excited to meet their new cousin!

HE'S STINKIN' ADORABLE!

Came in at 8 lbs 8 ozs and 20 inches long.

Perfectly healthy, and I think he looks so much like Tiff.

 Mags LOVED holding him, Colin was pretty shy and hesitant at first...

 Such a cute baby, he made the sweetest little noises when we were there

 I love this pic of Tiff and I - she did great!

 Maggie was showing Baby how to make a silly fishy face!

 Maggie and Colin really wanted to see his feet - but you know how it goes, he's a baby burrito!

We are so proud of you Tiff!

Welcome to the family!

Laying low in January

We love to be home-bodies in winter.

Not much is going on these days, Maggie is battling another ear infection (she just had one right after Christmas and now another one).  She actually came home from school yesterday, told me her ear hurt, asked to go to the doctor to get medicine so she could feel better.  That girl cracks me up.

 Maggie wanted a back rub the other day, she's such a princess...

Oh, and Brian and I started a long-over-due project this morning.

Finally painting our master bedroom.  We are pretty excited with how its turning out, plus, this really reminded us how much we wanted to get rid of the off-white paint that is covering our walls in our house.

The kids did a pretty good job of staying out of our hair so we could paint, and Brian just has a little more rolling to do.  I can't wait to have our bedroom back together (if you know me, you know I hate feeling unorganized!)

It's supposed to be a nice day tomorrow, so we are planning on doing some grilling for dinner.  Can't wait to see some sunshine and play outside with the kids.

Christmas at Memaw's

We finally had Christmas with the Dudley side of the family this past weekend.  The kids, of course, were thrilled to continue to get presents, so they didn't mind waiting until after New Years!

We got some wonderful and thoughtful presents, the kids got some cute clothes, books, toys, movies, and whatever else Memaw could get her hands on.

Tiff and Chad did the Blue Crew gift (a kids club for the KC Royals baseball team) and books, which have been a hit at night.

There was one particular present, a singing chicken, that Memaw got the kids..

slightly annoying, but lots of fun!

 The chicken sings the "chicken dance" and you toss it around, like a hot potato, and then the buzzer goes off randomly to decide the winner.  The chicken is big enough that anyone can catch it and Colin LOVES this thing.  Too bad that song gets stuck in your head really quickly!

 We moved the bounce house upstairs because it was just easier to watch the kids while getting dinner around and such.  The chicken joined in the fun...

And finally, here is a picture of our new sectional, an awesome Christmas present from Memaw.

We have been wanting to increase our seating in our main room for quite some time (pretty much since we've gotten married), but never took the leap.  We finally did and we love it!

Both ends recline, plus more of the sections in the middle also recline.  

We've watched lots of our new movies out there and next on our list..a new rug (one that hasn't been to college with Brian!)

Our first day back at Pre-K has been canceled for tomorrow. 

The temps are going to be well below freezing, with wind chills in the minus 30's.

I definitely don't mind one more day of NOT packing lunches, though :)

Welcome to winter!

2013 year end video

I used the Flipagram app on my phone to create this short 30 second video of some of my favorite pictures from 2013.

I hope you enjoy it!

New Years Eve

Our family had a nice, quiet evening at home on NYE and it was perfect.

The kids have been shuffled all over the place the past 1.5 weeks since they are off school but yet Brian and I aren't off work.  Their routines are all up in the air, and they definitely haven't been sleeping as well at nights.  

We thought that a little game night at home following some snacks would be the best option.

We also really enjoyed some sparkling red grape juice (that Colin pretended was his "beer", funny kid!)

We watched The Croods (a really cute movie that we got for Christmas) and played some Jenga.  Maggie didn't really play too much, since she always seemed to knock down the tower with her foot, or knee, or elbow while she was roaming around the room.

Colin really enjoyed himself and I think Brian did, too!

 Look at that concentration!

 I love the big grape juice mustache on Colin's face

 Meanwhile, Maggie is still being her crazy self.

Some days I really hope she is just going through her terrible two's, cause I'm not sure how much longer I can handle some of her temper tantrums!

Happy New Year!

We've had a great year at the Teson's house.

And quite honestly, I am another year closer to graduating, which makes me smile.

Can't wait to see what 2014 has in store for us!

Couldn't ask for anything more...

A White Christmas

A couple days before Christmas Kansas City got some snow.

Brian got to use his new snow blower and the kids got some good playing time in.

 Silly face snow clothes picture

 Colin is in heaven outside in the snow...Mags on the other hand, lasts about 5 minutes and wants to come in.  I don't even bother to bundle up myself any more since I know i will be coming inside with her soon.

Colin and Brian cleared the driveway, did some sledding and came in with very rosy red cheeks, requesting some hot chocolate.  Sounds like good snow playing to me!

 Since the kids are on break from Pre-K, Meemaw came in early this week to watch them for a couple of days.  Too bad Brian and I don't get any time off for Christmas break!  At least we have family around that is ready and willing to help out.

We went to Christmas Eve mass at 2:30 at the downtown Cathedral.

The timing worked out great, even if we could hardly get  spot to sit.  

I was totally stressed getting there with both kids (Brian was meeting us all down there), but it all worked out and mass was beautiful and we were home by 4:30.  We had the rest of the evening to enjoy and that worked out perfectly.  The kids opened one gift - some new pajamas, and we had snacks and veggies for dinner.  They had a great time setting out cookies and milk for Santa and wrote him the cutest note.

 Silly face picture

In case you couldn't tell, Colin's silly face was him "burping".  He's such a boy!

 Our beautiful family

We said goodbye to Buzz the elf on Christmas Eve.

Maggie was fighting a temperature and was already headed up to bed, but Colin wanted one last picture with him before he went back to the North Pole.

Our Christmas morning was great.  Colin came into our room at 6:45 and we headed downstairs a little after 7 when Maggie woke up.  We opened our stockings and had cinnamon rolls and breakfast casserole.

Santa brought the kids Ninja Turtle and Hello Kitty sheet sets, dream lites, and a bounce house for the two of them to share.

Colin got a few more Ninja Turtle toys and Maggie scored with a clock and some Hello Kitty accessories.

The kids got a few more movies and some books.

We had a wonderful Christmas and spent some time with Brian's family in the afternoon.

We really do have such good kids - they continue to amaze us daily.

Merry Christmas everyone!

cookies and parties

Maggie got invited to her REAL first ever birthday party. You know, the one where she goes to that isn't because the kid's parents are friends of ours...

Her friend Zoey from school had a party at Fun Run in Liberty.

Maggie was pretty hesitant at first, but she had a blast and really enjoyed herself.

 Maggie with another classmate friend, Janelle

 Cowgirl Maggie

 Maggie with birthday girl Zoey and Janelle

Maggie and Zoey are the 2 youngest kids at their school (Maggie is the youngest by about 6 months)

 Climbing the ladder so she can...

 SLIDE DOWN!!!! 

One last ride before we left to head home before the ice storm!

The weatherman is predicting 5-6 inches of snow tonight!

Luckily, I bought Brian a snowblower for Christmas and he's got it all unboxed and ready to go for tomorrow.  Can't wait to use it!

And now for a few random pics...

 Maggie at Meemaw's house right before Tiff's baby shower a few weeks ago

 We had a work party for the holidays and we all had a lot of fun.

Here I am with my now-retired coworker, Rich and the exercise lab medical director, Mark

 We had some crazy wild turkey roaming around in our back yard. 

There were about 6 of them and man, they are fast.

We had a fun time watching them walk around in our backyard.

We did our annual cookie making for Santa (and it was as messy as ever!)

 Cutting the cookies out, we made reindeer, trees, stars, snowmen

 Hard at work

 Colin really enjoyed this part, he's such a good kid

 Maggie's ornery flour-covered grin

 Sprinkles were EVERYWHERE.

The kids' hands are permanently blue and I'm pretty sure they ate more decorations than ended up on the cookies, or they were all over the floor.

In any case, the kids had a blast (and I'm so glad we only do this once a year)

The finished products.

Yummy, great work kids!